Time, Not Cloning

Lee Berman · 31 Jul 2013, 13:48 · from 2013-July.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 09:48:34 -0400
Subject: (urth) Time, Not Cloning
Message-ID: <BLU175-W408E5EDE6D43F1EC113479CF570 at phx.gbl>

>Brian: I meant that when a Severian died (drowned, for instance), the Yesodis
>replaced him by pulling a Severian from another time line.

IIRC, Malrubius explains that he and Triskele, as eidolons, were created from
Severian's memories. Later when Severian dies on the Ship and in Apu Punchau's
tomb, he is brought back to life as an eidolon via his own dying brain's 
memories. 

In these cases, Severian can actually see his own dead body nearby, but I don't
think the explanation is that the new  body was drawn from another timeline or 
cloned, per se. When Malrubius and Triskele are done, they disappear into silvery
shards. Later, Severian the eidolon worries that might happen to him. B, F and O
explain that the unstable matter his eidolon body is composed of will slowly 
gain real substance as he eats and drinks and replaces the unstable matter with
stable matter.

Perhaps the unstable matter is drawn from another universe/timeline or something
but I think Severian's own mind is the pattern source for the eidolon body.

FWIW, I don't think Severian drowns in the beginning of the story. I think an 
undine, knowing what he will become, rescues him to curry favor. Given that 
Juturna manages to survive on to the oceans of Ushas, I think it worked.

I think Severian dies some other times, like from the avern wound and from that
disruptor beam that hits him at the Citadel during Typhon's rule. There is no
dead Severian body in these cases so we may assume he unconsciously resurrects
himself via the power of the Claw (whose power ultimately derive from Severian
himself).

For me, the ultimate theme of all this is that Severian is in actuality a (pagan) 
god. He has most of the attributes we'd expect: immortality, superhuman powers, 
ability to time travel, etc. We might expect that a god have more wisdom, but hey. 
He is a nascent god. Godlike wisdom will come in time, of which he has an unlimited 
supply. Severian starts only with a presentiment of his future but who knows where 
he will end up in the knowledge department. The story doesn't give us his end.

(I'm not as familiar with Latro, but aren't there some who think he also is 
unknowingly a pagan god, specifically Mars?)

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